Abstract
The Trump administration's health information policies have created an unprecedented assault on medical data integrity, including widespread information purges, suppression efforts, and deliberate distortions. Federal agencies have removed thousands of health-related webpages, censored scientific publications, and, under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s leadership, disseminated misinformation about vaccines, fluoride, and other medical topics. These activities represent a dramatic departure from traditional government practices of providing reliable health information to clinicians, researchers, and the public, and they can endanger many lives.
This Article provides a first-of-its-kind analysis of the legal frameworks that govern contemporary federal health information abuses and examines potential remedies for aggrieved parties. The analysis demonstrates that current practices may violate multiple legal provisions, including the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause, the Administrative Procedure Act, the Paperwork Reduction Act, the Federal False Statements Act, and the Federal Records Act.
The Article argues that while courts are unlikely to award monetary damages through existing legal mechanisms such as Bivens claims or the Federal Tort Claims Act, claims for injunctive relief offer plaintiffs a promising litigation pathway. Recent successes demonstrate that courts can effectively compel restoration of purged health-related information and halt unconstitutional censorship practices. As government health information abuses continue to proliferate, litigation serves as democracy's essential safeguard against the erosion of medical truth and public health protections.
Keywords
government data purges, administrative law, First Amendment, substantive due process, Administrative Procedure Act, medical misinformation, public health policy, federal health agencies, vaccine misinformation, injunctive relief
Publication Date
2026
Document Type
Article
Publication Information
NYU Journal of Legislation and Public Policy (forthcoming 2026)
Repository Citation
Hoffman, Sharona, "“Health Information Purges, Suppression, and Distortion,”" (2026). Faculty Publications. 2361.
https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/faculty_publications/2361
